


Close Your Eyes To See

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction
Genre: AU, Happy, M/M, uni au but they're on break
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 03:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1102034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn is nervous about meeting Niall's family for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close Your Eyes To See

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first Ziall fic I post. I just wanted to write it because Ziall is sweet and yeah it's a happy ship. Enjoy!

Zayn has been kind of cranky on the flight from Manchester to Dublin and Niall has no idea why! He even chose afternoon flights for both departing and returning flights because he knows Zayn isn’t an early riser. Even though it’s only an hour flight, Zayn feels like it’s lasting forever.

“Babe, you’re gonna have to act like you at least like being in the same space as me.” Niall says right before they’re due to land.

Zayn knows he isn’t being fair to Niall because he hasn’t talked to him all day so far or last night and it’s not even Niall’s fault. It’s his; Zayn is just being a baby. He can meet families. He met Harry’s family! He met Louis’ family and Liam’s! He loved them and they all loved him. Niall met his family and they loved Niall, it shouldn’t be different for him meeting Niall’s family right? He just knows he’s nervous because it’s Niall’s family and they mean a lot to Niall, not that Zayn’s family doesn’t mean a lot to him or Niall but they see Zayn and Niall all the time and hopefully in the future, Niall’s family will be his too. So he wants to show them that he’s good for Niall, because he knows his appearance doesn’t scream “I am friendly and family-oriented,” especially for a traditional family but he is! He's also scared because Niall only came out to them this year and he also mentioned he already had a boyfriend and they took that a little hard, despite that they overcame it because it's Niall and he's a ball of sunshine and you can't throw that away.

Zayn is scared because he knows Niall's family is a little traditional, despite Niall having a mouth like a sailor and drinking way more than he should at bars and parties, his family was pretty devout so for them to accept them with open arms was a miracle within itself. Niall insisted that they weren't homophobic or anything like that; it was just the news of Niall being gay that shocked them, nothing to do with him already having boyfriend. Zayn just grabbed Niall's hand and kissed it.

"I love being with you, just you know how I get when I'm nervous."

"I know but you have to relax and take deep breaths. We still have about an hour before we reach Mullingar after we land so you have all that time to calm down."

“That will just give me more time to freak out, Niall.” Niall does his usual booming laugh when he finds something funny, warranting weird looks from those around them because the flight was pretty silent, save for the few babies and Niall’s laugh is almost amplified because of this and most times Zayn finds it endearing but right now it’s anything but.

“Zayn, you’re acting like I am throwing you into a house of psychopaths. It’s just my family, you’ll be fine, unless – Zayn, did you not want to meet them?” Niall says furrowing his eyebrows.

He should have known before just asking Zayn if he wanted to spend Christmas with him and just buying a ticket for Zayn without fully clarifying he meant in Ireland. He should have but Zayn said it was great before, unless he was lying and now Niall was freaking out. Maybe it was too soon? Zayn looked at Niall’s face and cupped his face in his slender hands and kissed Niall, distracting Niall from his increasingly panicked thoughts.

“No, love it isn’t that. I’m just,” Zayn basically whispered this last bit, “scared that they won’t like me for you.”

“Zayn, that’s what you’re worried about? And here I thought you just didn’t want to actually meet them and I forced you into that. Baby, you’re great and if they don’t like you, well they’re not the one’s dating you right? I like you for me and that’s that.” Niall squeezed Zayn’s fingers for reassurance because he was happy that Zayn was nervous about leaving a bad impression and not silent because he didn’t want to meet Niall’s folks.

“But still, I want them to like me. It’ll be awkward at the wedding if they hate me.” Zayn said with a smirk.

He said he was going to marry Niall since before they started dating. A week after he realised that Niall was walking perfection and he’s been smitten ever since. It took Niall a little while longer to realise that he too wanted Zayn, well it took him seeing Zayn flirted with by a female, bitchier version of himself. Which, he would never admit to be jealous even under extreme torture because that was not what caused him to suddenly tell Zayn that he felt sick and wanted to go home and cuddle instead. Nope, it wasn’t jealousy at all. He genuinely felt sick; call it liquid courage when he kissed Zayn right after he said that. The girl was not impressed at all and left stomping away angrily saying something about how every guy that’s hot is gay and taken. Despite that everything was good because Zayn just asked him if they could finally date since they’ve already snogged (finally). Then they went home and “watched” Elf. (In reality they just had a lot of kissing to catch up with and maybe some frottage and coming in their pants more than thrice, but that’s neither here nor there).

“Zayn, they’re going to love you! It’ll be fine! You’re psyching yourself out for no reason, I promise you babe. If you feel uncomfortable at any time, we can go home and that will be that, okay?” Niall said giving Zayn and blinding smile. 

Zayn would never ever tell Niall if he was uncomfortable because it’s been months since Niall has even seen his family since he went to Bradford with Zayn instead of home for summer holiday and spent EID with him and that meant so much to Zayn. Niall had absolutely no problem staying with Zayn and immediately was thrilled that Zayn invited him over for the summer. So, yeah, Zayn can suck up staying two weeks instead of the full month of winter break because Niall did so much for him already, there was no way he was going to be a baby about this. 

“Okay, but we’re not leaving. I told you I would spend Christmas with you and your family and I will no matter what, okay?” Zayn said with his newfound confidence. He could do this for Niall, he knew he could.

“Thank you Zayn.”

“It's nothing, really. Least I could do for you.”

 

“There they are!” Said a voice which was rapidly muffled by Niall’s shoulder, Zayn didn’t even make a full stop when Niall jumped out of the car to greet his mum. 

Zayn grabbed their stuff out of the boot while Niall was greeting all his family members, which kept piling out of the house. It wasn’t a particularly big house, so the fact that so many people fit inside was surprising. 

Zayn silently stood next to Niall and grabbed Niall’s hand because he thought he was just meeting the immediate family, as in brother, brother’s wife, mum, dad, and that’s it; not the entire Horan clan. His nerves that he successfully got rid of on the ride over with Niall talking him down came back with a vengeance. 

“Mam, da, Greg, everybody else, this is Zayn.” Niall said with a bright smile on his face.

One minute Zayn was holding Niall’s hand, the next he was engulfed by Niall’s mum’s arms and he had to let go because it’d be really rude to not hug back. 

“It’s nice to finally meet you Zayn. Niall tells me a lot about you.” She said smiling brightly at him. Niall has her smile and he immediately feels much better than he did two minutes ago. Niall’s dad just puts out his hand and tells him “Welcome to Mullingar, lad.” And he is being intimidating but Zayn thinks that’s because Niall is his little boy and he took Niall away for the summer, at least from the snippet of the conversation he overheard Niall have with his dad two weeks into the summer and Niall was saying that he won’t be able to see any football games with him this summer but maybe next summer and looked kind of sad after the call ended. So perhaps Bobby was wary of him but Niall said he would warm up after he realised how great Zayn was. 

The rest of the family greeted him with hugs and cheek kisses and Zayn felt very relaxed. Finally everyone had enough of standing outside in the cold and brought them all inside. Bobby insisted helping Zayn bring the bags to Niall’s childhood bedroom which Zayn didn’t think anything of until Bobby shut the door. 

Zayn literally gulped because of course he didn’t think to tell Bobby that he could handle the two duffle bags. He should have asked Niall where the bedroom was instead of just taking up Bobby’s offer to help him. 

“Zayn,” Bobby started out, but he didn’t sound angry or anything so Zayn didn’t know if he was in trouble or not. Although, he didn’t do anything wrong except keep Bobby’s son away from home for 6 months, but that wasn’t completely his fault!

“Niall seems really happy with you, but he’s never been in a relationship before either and I guess we know why he never was now and I don’t want him to get hurt by you either. I accept him being gay; I have no problems with that. I just know how my Niall is and how boys work, although I never imagined having to talk to my son’s boyfriend, I expect you to treat him as an equal and as important and special as he is to me.”

“I have no intentions of hurting him, sir and he’s everything to me! I wouldn’t disrespect him ever.”

“No one has an intention of hurting him but I don’t know if you have noticed or not but he’s rather sensitive even if he acts like nothing affects him, so if you have no intention other than sex towards him – then I would not like you to continue with him. You understand?”

Zayn couldn’t say he didn’t see that coming, but he would never use Niall! He waited a full semester and half for Niall to be his. No way would he be here for just sex, meeting the family is 100% serious. 

“With no disrespect sir, I would never ever do anything to hurt Niall. Nor am I using him for sex or anything. I just, I love him and I want to marry him eventually and have a family with him. That’s all I want from him.”

Bobby deemed that a suitable response and was about to inquire about the marriage part because the boys are only 19 and that’s a little bit too young to be that serious but then Niall came into the room and Bobby’s cheeks flushed more than usual because Niall specifically told him over the phone to not make Zayn feel uncomfortable.

“How are my two favorite boys?” Niall said meaningfully looking at both men. “Dad, I hope you’re behaving yourself.”

“He was just helping me and showing me the way, bug, nothin’ ta worry about.” Zayn said and Bobby gave him a small smile when Niall turned back out to the door. 

“Alright, let’s go downstairs! Mam has the best food for us! You’ll love it babe, she’s the best cook come on.” 

Niall turned around because Zayn didn’t move fast enough for him and grabbed Zayn’s hand and practically dragged him downstairs. Zayn noticed that Niall’s accent was stronger than usual and for some reason; it made Zayn fonder of his boyfriend which Zayn thought was impossible. 

To say Niall’s mum’s cooking was great was a complete understatement. She made pork free food just for Zayn! The fact that Niall told her that in passing once and she remembered said a lot about how much she cared about what Niall had to say and yeah, Zayn’s mum cooks amazingly as well but in his eyes nothing compares to how his own mum cooks. 

This was the best part was that his family and Zayn were getting along and it wasn’t even Christmas yet! Zayn was even participating in conversations without Niall having to drag him into them. He was so proud of his boy and his family that his cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

 

Bobby wasn’t alone for Zayn until two days later when Niall and his mother went shopping for Zayn and Bobby. Of course they said they had to do some mother and son bonding time to catch up, but it wasn’t that hard to figure out but right before they left when Niall kissed him goodbye, he whispered he didn’t want anything for Christmas but Niall and bless his heart, Niall blushed and told him he was ruining the secret shopping plan. Niall doesn’t know what to even get Zayn but he has his mum and if anything, he could ask Louis or Liam or even Harry, but that would be like asking a magic 8 ball for an answer, so he would rather not have to take that route. He loved Harry but that boy is nothing but that boy is good for many things, helping people with gifts is not one of them.

After they left and it was just Zayn and Bobby, Bobby turned to Zayn and asked him to join him in the den. He turned on the telly and of course football was on because Niall was so much like his father, it was insane. They watched in silence for a good twenty minutes before Bobby broke the silence.

“So, the other day you said you wanted to marry Niall. Don’t you think you’re a little young to be worrying about that kind of stuff?” Bobby asked without looking away from the television programme. 

Niall did the same thing when he was nervous about asking something, he looked anywhere but who the question was directed towards. Zayn found that adorable, not on Niall’s dad, but on Niall because he showed how close he was to his family which made Zayn question why he left them to go to a different country in the first place. Not that he wasn’t grateful, because then he wouldn’t have been here today nor would he have met Niall in the first place and Zayn doesn’t want to think about how sad his life would have been without his little leprechaun. 

“No, I don’t because that’s what dating is for, yeah? Seeing how well you fit with someone and if you could marry ‘em? Niall’s just it for me. I haven’t been in many relationships before him and he means so much to me, ever since I met him something just clicked. He makes me laugh; he makes me try new things I would never do if it wasn’t for him. He supports me in doing what I love and doesn’t judge me. I don’t want anybody else and I don’t want him to want anybody else but me. He’s just, everything you know?”

Bobby smiled at this because he was glad Niall found someone who thought of him as everything and great things about him despite it being a boy, Bobby found himself not caring even though he initially thought of it as something he wouldn’t be able to live with, he realised Niall was fine the way he was and was genuinely happy he found someone to love and love him right back. 

They slip into comfortable silence after that watching the footie match on the telly until Niall and Maura return. It was nice being with Niall’s family so far and Zayn figured he wouldn’t mind doing this again, although he missed his mum terribly because after all, Zayn is a mummy’s boy at the end of the day so he excused himself to call his mother and an hour later that’s where Niall found him, in his childhood bedroom laying down sounding semi-choked up talking to his mom. Niall’s face immediately fell, completely misinterpreting the situation of Zayn realising that he really, really wanted Niall to be his forever despite the short time they’ve been together and was blathering to his mom about forever and how much he really intended on marrying Niall and not just saying that to watch Niall stutter and blush like mad and taking it as Zayn hating being in Ireland.

He curled up behind Zayn and started peppering the side of his face with kisses until he heard Zayn say bye to Trisha. 

“Was it something my dad said? You want to leave now? I can pack up and I’ll just buy the tickets at the airport when we get there, or we can stay at Greg’s or get a hotel until our time to leave comes.” Niall said as soon as Zayn hung up.

“What’re you on about, babe?”

“My dad, he said something to upset you? He promised he would be nice and instead he makes you cry. Great, I’m glad he made you feel so welcome and happy to be here for the holidays.” 

“Babe, Niall, your dad didn’t do anything wrong.” Zayn said, his voice wavering into laughing because he was so in love with this idiot. Well, Niall didn’t know he was being an idiot or that Zayn was in love with him but he was and idiot for even suggesting that Zayn wanted to leave two days after they got there. Even if Bobby was rude to him whilst Niall and his mum were out, he wouldn’t have cried and asked to leave, he’d get through it for Niall because Niall is everything to him.

“Then why were you crying to your mum?” Niall said worried.

“Niall, I –” Zayn started but was interrupted by Niall jumping up from having his arms around Zayn and start pacing the room. 

“Were you planning to break up with me up here so I have my family around me to help me feel better and not be alone back in England? Which is thoughtful but did you chicken out because dad was mean to you and now you’re scared to – ” Niall stopped talking about his theories because Zayn laughed so hard that he fell off of the small bed. 

“Niall, do you think I’m some evil heartbreaker? Why would I even do that? And you never even let me say anything since you interrupted, you idiot.” He said that all with a small smirk because he has never been so fond of someone so dense in his life.

“Then why were you crying?” Niall said, he was clearly confused and Zayn loved Niall’s confused face because he looked like a little kid. His eyes got wider and turned a light blue and they looked glassy like a child who just got told Father Christmas isn’t real. Zayn of course had to stand up and kiss him because that was the only thing he could do. Hesitantly Niall kissed him back and brings a blush to his pale Irish cheeks every time. 

Niall doesn’t let the topic stray too far, despite Zayn working his hardest to make Niall forget by kissing him brainless because despite everything, he was nervous about Niall not saying it back or just being told to wait, Zayn isn’t as good with patience as he makes himself seem but then again, neither is Niall but he doesn’t even try to hide it. “Tell me.” Niall says between kisses until he finally just turns his head away from Zayn’s lips making Zayn sigh in resignation because if it were up to Zayn, they would probably stay kissing until they both got hard and had to give each other hand jobs or blowjobs. Despite everything, Niall isn’t ready for full on sex and that’s okay with Zayn because he is okay with anything Niall wants to do, that’s how gone he is. He doesn’t even need sex if he’s being truthful; he gets off on even being able to kiss Niall whenever he pleases. 

“I was just talking about you and babe, I just, I love you. I love you a lot, more than anyone and it’s just strange, I didn’t even think I could feel this way about someone before? Does that make sense?”

It was the first time Zayn’s ever said the words, they show that they love each other but they’ve never said it to each other. Despite the talks of marriage, jokingly but also not very jokingly because Zayn does really want to marry Niall, they just never say the three words to each other. The little bit of silence after he said that scared Zayn because what if this scares Niall away? Although, logically it shouldn’t be the case because he’s in Ireland spending two weeks with his family for Christmas and if that wasn’t a silent declaration of love, then Zayn didn’t know how else it could be interpreted. 

But then Niall smiles and cups Zayn’s face and says “I love you too. So much Zayn, I love you more than anything. You don’t even know,” giving Zayn a small peck on the lips. 

And Zayn figures he will never get tired of hearing Niall say it because his heart jumps every time Niall’s even in the room. It’s literally impossible for him not to touch Niall and know that yes, he’s still real and still all Zayn’s and now it’s solidified. He also figures he can hold his bigger declarations of love for the future when he’s actually about to propose with a ring and all. Or maybe he’ll bring it up tonight when they’re cuddling up in bed. 

“Come on, mam is cooking dinner and we can catch the end of the footie game with dad.” Niall says grabbing Zayn’s hand and walking towards the door, not really giving Zayn an option, as if Zayn was even going to reconsider. Zayn would follow Niall to the ends of the earth. 

“Okay babe, I love you.”

The smile that that brings to Niall’s face is unreal and all for him and it makes Zayn the happiest and warmest he’s ever been in Niall’s small, already too warm house. 

“I love you too, you sap.” Niall laughs and so does Zayn because Niall’s cheeks still bare a hint of a blush. And yeah, now that it’s been said, Zayn doesn’t think he’ll be able to go a day, or minute without reminding Niall that he loves him. This is the best winter holiday he’s ever had and it’s barely even started.


End file.
